Michigan's Triathlon & Duathlon Championship - Spr - TriathlonSprint

This was another first for me...1st OWS! It was a wave start in about chest high water. I hung out about midway to the back until start. Maybe started too strong as I felt fatigued about 2/3 to the 1st buoy (1st buoy at 225m). Really struggled with navigation but I suspect that is par for the course for one's 1st OWS. Had to do a bit of breaststroke but tried to freestyle as much as possible. Was happy when the swim was done. Water temp didn't feel too bad at start but cold got to me near the end.

More OWS practice and more time in the water overall. Didn't really concentrate on stroke much during the swim. Too much going on around me and too much struggling to go in a straight line.

Felt like a super slow transition and I guess it was. The lake seemed a long way from the transition. Cycling shirt got stuck putting it on and then had to put on a long sleeve shirt over that. Never practiced a transition so I guess you get what you train for.

Practice and avoid cold weather so I can wear less clothes (LOL).

This was definitely my strongest segment. After the cold swim and the slow transition I really tried to put the hammer down. I think I was only passed a couple of times and definitely made up time. Had a lot of fun on this segment!

More time in the saddle. I got back into riding a little over a year ago after taking more than 15 years off. Definitely think with more practice I can get my avg speed into low 20's! Didn't spend enough time concentrating on my pedal stroke, definitely can improve there as well.

Thought I did better here but did not compare well with my age group.

I should have practiced this. Probably a greater sense of urgency in the future will help.

I guess I did about as well as I could hope here. I have always hated running and have never run regularly until about 3 months ago. Felt like the turn around would never come but the once I passed that point I really seemed to run better (the fact that it was slightly down hill probably helped). Video shot by my wife at the end showed me hobbling a bit, suspect that shin/calf pain was bothering me at that point. I motivated myself and the runner slightly ahead of me to sprint each other to the finish line. Above all I wanted to finish as strong as possible.

More running training. For a new runner I guess I can't be unhappy with the result.

Found my family, took some pictures and started dissecting the race in my head.


Transitions and the newness to swimming and running.


At first I rated the race a 4 due to how cold it was, but how can I hold the organizer responsible for the weather? For my first tri it was great. I would have loved to finish a bit closer to 1 hr and 15 minutes but that gives me something to shoot for in the future.